Lift-and-Deployment ROV System

28 June 2014

Deep Blue Engineering UK announced the introduction of its Shuttle Sub. The new lift-and-deployment system is a payload-carrying remotely operated vehicle (ROV). It is used to install and retrieve equipment, lay cable, and conduct salvage operations. Even when laden with a payload of 100 t, the Shuttle Sub can float, dive, surface, and maintain neutral buoyancy, so it is ideally suited for work being carried out in deepwater environments on or near the seabed. The Shuttle Sub does not require an additional ROV to conduct visual monitoring or connector installation activities subsea. Instead, technicians on a support vessel carry out these tasks remotely. As with a conventional ROV, technicians monitor and control subsea activities by an umbilical between the Shuttle Sub and the vessel at the surface, but the Shuttle Sub is unique is that it is also the payload carrier, transferring deployment and retrieval tasks to the ROV. This provides optimum control and removes the need for lift-line-based operations. The Shuttle Sub performs all of the functions of a work-class ROV but is large enough to accommodate a payload that would normally be deployed or retrieved from a ship.